Present currently available blood bags comprise polyvinyl chloride collapsible containers, to which is sealed a donor tubing which is also made of a polyvinyl chloridebased formulation.
Currently, development work has taken place on blood bags which are not made of a polyvinyl chloride based formulation. For example, it has been taught in the prior art that blood bags made be made of polyolefin, polyurethane, or the like. For example, with polyolefin formulations, such as materials which are substantially made of propylene units, it may be desirable to make the tubing which is connected to the flexible container out of a dissimilar material, for example, a polyvinyl chloride formulation.
A problem arises with such structures in that the differing formulations of the container and the connected tubing may result in difficulties in sealing of the tubing to the container. For example, a blood bag may be mde in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,162. but it may be desirable for the donor tubing connected to the blood bag to be made of a polyvinyl chloride formulation.
In Vcelka and Winchell U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,034, a connection means has been proposed in which direct sealing between the bag material and the tubing material is avoided. However in this particular patent a latex sleeve is used, which may be deemed undesirable due to expense.
In this invention, a connector between a blood bag and donor tubing is provided, having a substantial potential for cost saving manufacturing, and reliably providing a firm, sealed connection between a container such as a blood bag and flexible tubing, even when the container and tubing are incompatible from the viewpoint of sealing, with a simple and highly inexpensive design which is easy to asemble.